The Six Day War report without the anti-Israel spin. Or check out the Jewish Virtual Library, one of my all-time favorite places for the history of Israel and Judaism.

I wonder if they’ll bring back Gerald McRaney. Naaaah. But Jericho’s coming back.

For weeks, “Jericho” junkies have been firing e-mails (effectively shutting down InBoxes at CBS and this newspaper), signing petitions and sending bags of nuts to CBS headquarters in protest.

The assault seems to have worked, “Jericho” creator and executive producer Carol Barbee said Tuesday. CBS executives are in discussions with the show’s producers and actors to resuscitate the show — killed just last month — for an eight-episode run in mid-season.

“The idea would not be to bring it for eight and out, but to bring it back for eight with the hope that it would keep going,” Barbee said. “They’re making deals with the actors and there’s other logistical stuff to work out too. ‘Swingtown’ [a new drama] was supposed to take over the same stages so it’s a lot about the logistics of how to work out a schedule that works for all of us.”

Looks like they’re starting to notice the online TV-watchers.

“I really think that what has been learned here is that networks are going to have to look at numbers and who is watching their show and who is downloading their show in a different way from here on out. I think they have to understand that the Nielsens are not telling the story anymore and that the 18-49 demographic they’re all so keen on is online and that’s how increasingly they are getting their news and entertainment.”

Since the fan revolt began, “Jericho” viewers have insisted they also would not be satisfied with a TV movie or online re-cap that told them how the “Jericho” story ends.

If the actors sign on the dotted line — and those deals should be in place in the next day or two — Barbee said “Jericho” junkies will get their way.

I can’t really explain why I like this show. I just do. A lot. Yes, the topic is depressing—a post-nuclear holocaust America—but the show, overall, is not depressing. It’s about people dealing, and learning how to survive.

Of course, every time I see it, I tell myself: You really do have to learn how to shoot and buy a gun.

Fact one: Hezbullah is rebuilding south of the Litani River, right under the noses of the UN Peacekeeping force, which surprises us not at all.

The head of the research division of Military Intelligence, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told lawmakers Monday that Hezbollah is rebuilding its forces south of the Litani River in Lebanon, despite the presence of international peacekeepers in the area.

[...]“Hezbollah continues to rehabilitate, from a military and a social perspective. It is acquiring a large number of weapons from Iran and Syria,” Baidatz said.

“It is preparing itself for possible conflict in the summer, but is not interested in this as it aspires to a period of calm in which to rehabilitate.”

Fact two: Syria asks Iran to “coordinate attacks” against Israel.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has called for “better cooperation” between Damascus and Tehran in “the confrontation with the Zionist regime and the USA,” according to a report published on Sunday by Iran’s official state news agency, IRNA.

The report, which was reproduced on the personal blog of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, quoted a telephone conversation between the two leaders, after Ahmadinejad congratulated Assad on winning the Syrian elections.

Fact three: Hamas has imported tons of weapons, dug numerous tunnels and bunkers, and has readied Gaza for a Hezbullah-style war with Israel.

According to Baidatz, “Hamas is satisfied with the outcome of the current fighting against Israel, as it has resulted in the desertion of Israeli towns. They understand that Israel will not launch a deep ground incursion [into Gaza].”

Baidatz warned that Hamas is continuing with preparations for a major attack, and there have been many alerts over attempts to kidnap Israelis.

Fact four: The IDF expects a two-front war.

“The IDF is preparing for an escalation on the Palestinian front and the northern front,” IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi stated Tuesday during a drill at the Shizafon army base in the south.

“The army’s next objective is to improve its readiness and fitness, while continuing to fight terror,” Lieutenant General Ashkenazi told officer training course cadets who came to watch the drill. “The drill here displays very impressive abilities.”

This summer will be a hot one.

Not ever. From an interview in the Saudi daily Aljazeera in April, Ismail Haniyeh said:

“As far as we’re concerned, the issue of recognition of Israel has been settled once and for all. It has been settled in our political literature, in our Islamic thought and in our Jihadist culture, on which we base our moves. Recognition of Israel is out of the question. We have been advocating the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the refugees. In exchange for all that, we will declare a truce, but no recognition of Israel.”

“The concept of a Palestinian state is clear in our view: ‘Palestine’ within its borders and its legitimate historical heritage. However, we don’t have a problem with a unity government in this phase. We are in agreement with our brother Palestinians and Arabs about establishing a Palestinian state within the ‘67 borders with Jerusalem as the capital. We are telling everyone that we have an objective for this phase, as well as a national goal.”

Not that this is new to any of my regular readers. I’ve written versions of this post many, many times.

What’s new is that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs seems to finally be managing a decent publicity push so that the world can see Hamas for what it is: An organization of murderers and terrorists whose goal is the destruction of Israel.

Forty years ago today, according to the calendar that much of the world goes by, Israeli airplanes launched a pre-emptive attack on the Egyptian air force, totally destroying the planes on the ground, as well as the airbases from which they might have been launched.

In six days, Israel defeated the combined armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, supplied with arms and troops from Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria. The Arab armies combined came to a total of 900 combat aircraft, over 5,000 tanks, and 500,000 men. The Israeli forces consisted of 275,000 men, 1,100 tanks, and about 200 planes. (All numbers taken from Michael Oren’s Six Days of War.) Watching the PBS special, “Six Days in June,” I was struck by the events that unfolded in those six days, and in the months leading up to the war.

As I watched the documentary, hearing the tale of the Egyptian army surrounded and attacked in the Sinai, and watching the films of Egyptian bodies lying on the sand, I thought of another Egyptian army defeat, several millennia ago. And I thought of the series of coincidences, accidents, and good and bad luck that occurred on both sides: Yitzhak Rabin’s breakdown before the war, from which he recovered in time to lead the IAF to its stunning victory. The Egyptian commander in Sinai, Abdel Amer, panicking and causing a rout rather than an orderly retreat, which Ariel Sharon used to encircle and destroy the Egyptian army in Sinai. The agreement between Egypt and Jordan that forced Jordan into the war against Hussein’s better judgment, and that put his forces under the (inept) Egyptian command—and lost him the Old City and allowed Israel to unite Jerusalem. Nasser’s overall hubris, certain that he would be the Arab leader who would rid the Muslim world of the Jewish State once and for all.

But more than anything else, I thought of the timing of a song that sprang from a contest earlier that year, in which Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem (the Israeli part) asked that the 1967 Israel song contest be devoted to songs about Jerusalem. Naomi Shemer, a prolific and popular songwriter, came up with Jerusalem of Gold (lyrics in English here). Shuly Nathan’s singing made the song an overwhelming hit. A few weeks later, when the IDF retook Jerusalem from Jordan, the song became almost mystical in its timing. “Jerusalem of Gold” rang out from everywhere. Soldiers sang it as they streamed to the Kotel. (You can hear Shuly sing the song in this video. You have to sit through most of it to get the song, but it’s well worth it to hear what Israelis heard 40 years ago.) After the war ended, thousands and thousands of Israelis walked hand-in-hand to the newly-made plaza and beheld the Wall for what for many was the first time in their lives. And they prayed. And they sang. And Jews returned to the site of our ancient Temples.

Listen to this beautiful version of the song by Ofra Haza (thanks to Omri for enlightening me to its existence) dubbed in Hebrew and English. And while you’re listening, reflect on the amazing number of coincidences that led to the recovery of Jerusalem, and the recovery of the Temple Mount, our holiest site, which was forbidden to Jews under Muslim rule. Think especially of the years of 1948 to 1967, when the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, occupied by Jews for millennia, was taken by force by the Jordanians, who then expelled all the remaining Jews, destroyed all of the synagogues, and descrated Jewish cemeteries that had been there for centuries. There was never an outrcy by any world body over these events. There was never a movement by any world body to repatriate the Jews of Jerusalem—the “indigenous” inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter since the time of King David. There was never a movement by any world body to guarantee Jewish religious access to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. But on June 7, 1967, the tables were turned, and the Temple Mount was once again under Jewish control. It didn’t take a world body. It took something much greater.

I think about all those coincidences, and I see God’s touch in the events of 1967. I see God’s hand in the recovery of Jerusalem. And I, as a writer who has experienced what I call the “lightning from God”—the overwhelming urge to write something that seems to utterly write itself with no conscious input from me—see God’s touch in “Jerusalem of Gold.”

I’m with those who think that Israel will have to give much of the West Bank to the Palestinians, if the Palestinians ever renounce terror. But I think there is no way that Jerusalem will ever leave our hands again, nor do I think that it should. Naomi Shemer captured the hearts and minds of Jews everywhere in her paean to Jerusalem. Listen, and even those of you who aren’t Jewish will understand why, at the end of the Passover Seder, Jews all over the world say: “Next year in Jerusalem!”